


A Short Break after the Finale

by DawnisaNerd



Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Bonding, Comfort, Gen, and hat kid being scared of grooves after he snapped, conductor actually being nice and supportive to hat kid, surprise visit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:44:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23019388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DawnisaNerd/pseuds/DawnisaNerd
Summary: After the fiasco that was the Award Ceremony, the Conductor decides to pay a short visit to Hat Kid's spaceship. They have a little chat about things but the Conductor just wants to make sure if she's ok.
Relationships: The Conductor & Hat Kid (A Hat in Time)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 121





	A Short Break after the Finale

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place when DJ Grooves wins the Annual Bird Movie Awards instead of the Conductor (honestly I think the story works out better like that)

As he waited in the elevator, the Conductor hoped this was the right place. Who else would be living in a spaceship when they fell from the sky? Apparently someone who’s been collecting shiny hourglasses that also fell from the sky not too long ago. That lass had a reason to collect those time pieces and the Conductor wasn’t sure why. But one thing he did know was that DJ Grooves had been keeping one for himself and he had to let her know about it. He wondered if she was alright ever since. 

Soon the elevator stopped and the owl stepped outside. He found himself in a huge room filled with a variety of buttons and levers, mechanical doors, and electronic screens on the red brick walls. On the second floor, there was another elevator and a huge vault with a clock on it. A little vacuum robot was roaming around the carpet floor. The Conductor chuckled at the robot as it passed by him. He was amazed by the interior of this spaceship, especially the vast window that displayed a dark sky of stars and planets, including the one he lived in. But he wasn’t here just to admire the scenery. Surely, he wasn’t the only one in here. 

“Lassie? Laaassie?” he called out, “Are you in here?” 

The moment he spoke, an alarm started to ring repeatedly as the lights from the ceiling started flashing red and the screens had the words “INTRUDER ALERT”. It seems that he was not welcome here. 

“Ah peck…”

The alarms continued to ring until a mechanical door from the bottom left corner opened, where little girl with a purple top hat stepped out. The Conductor recognized that little girl from anywhere. She looked confused, searching for whoever the intruder was until she spotted the old owl. 

“Conductor? Is that you?” she said with a surprised look. “How did you get up here?” 

“Yeah lassie, it’s me. Saw that spaceship up in the sky while I was on me way to the studio. So I thought I’d pay myself a visit.” 

“Really?” She walked towards him, eyes beaming of curiosity. “I thought you were gonna record another movie.” 

“Oh ho, don’t worry about that! It’s a work in progress right now. But uh…” How could the Conductor tell the lass he was worried about her without sounding so sentimental? That wasn’t like him at all, but he needed to get it off his chest because for some reason, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. 

“I just had to see for myself if ye were ok after that DJ Peck Neck tried to…well, y’know.” 

Before he could say something else, Hat Kid gave him a tight hug. This caught the owl off guard but he didn’t mind. Not even his own grandchildren hugged him like this. 

“Aw lass, ye don’t have to do that,” he chastised her lightly. But she looked up at him with a smile. “I know. It’s so good to see you!” 

The Conductor chuckled when Hat Kid let go to show him around the place. As she talked about the various things she liked to do in her spaceship, they went up the stairs to see the second floor. Conductor nodded as she rambled about. He remarked, “Nice place ye have here if I say so myself.” 

“I know, right? It’s got everything I need to make myself at home!” 

“But it’s not exactly yer home, isn’t it?” 

“Yeah. My home is actually miles away from here.” With a small boop, Hat Kid touched a huge screen next to the vault to show a roadmap with several icons. At the very end, there was a house titled “home” and two icons away from it, the lass’s own head stayed put in its place. She wasn’t kidding. The Conductor glanced at the huge vault. At first, he wondered what could be inside but when he saw the clock, the answer became obvious to him. 

“Oh, is this where you’ve been keeping those time pieces?” he asked out loud. Hat Kid turned around and said, “Uh huh! They’re for my spaceship!” 

“Ay, so they’re some kind of energy fuel.” The Conductor placed a hand onto the vault to take a closer look. “I thought all this time ye needed them for some crazy time traveling or something.” 

“I wish I knew how to do that. But I don't know how to use one properly. All I know is that you can rewind time if you drop or break one.”

“Oh ho, so that’s why-“ the Conductor stopped himself before he could finish his sentence. He really didn’t have to bring up DJ Grooves again, especially since he did it once and Hat Kid paid no mind the first time. But now, her enthusiasm started to diminish a little bit. Oh dear.

The Conductor coughed a bit, muttering “pardon me”. But he continued to look at the huge vault. If this is where all the time pieces were in, how many were supposed to be in there? One was powerful enough to rewind time, but if you had more than 10, 20, or even 40…who knows what power you could possess? 

“Hey Conductor?” Hat Kid suddenly asked. 

“Yeah lass?” 

“I’m sorry. I should have let you win this year’s bird movie award.” 

The Conductor sensed the regret coming from her tone, but he wasn’t sure how to respond. He wasn’t the best person at comforting someone. If anything, yelling at them furiously was all he was good at. But maybe an attempt to do the opposite wouldn’t hurt? 

“Ah cmon lass, that’s already over and done. This isn’t the first time I lost, y’know? Trust me, I’ll never forget the loss of Award 42…”

“When was that?” 

“Ay, a long time ago, way before you arrived on this planet. But that doesn’t matter. I made up for it by winning the other awards anyways.” 

There was another long silence as the two continued to stand in front of the vault without looking at each other. The Conductor remembered how he felt when he saw DJ Grooves won the award for the 2nd time. He was always confident about winning against his rival and seeing him actually win made the Conductor feel bitter. Then again, the reason why he won was that Hat Kid preferred him over the Conductor. The penguin’s outgoing and friendly demeanor must have appealed to her, unlike his foul-mouthed temper. 

“Look lassie,” he spoke up to break the silence, “What happened wasn’t yer fault. And it’s not mine either. Grooves was the one who hid that time piece from you and tried to kill ye for it. I can’t believe him…” 

“But you have no idea what he’s like!” Hat Kid suddenly cried out. “He was so scary! I thought he was nice and cool and I had a fun time being in his movies! And then, when I found him in the basement, he just started screaming at me and attacking me! I just wanted my time piece back but he wouldn’t let me!”

Then she looked down covering her face, “And now he hates me, more than ever…” 

The Conductor stood there watching her sob a little bit. He couldn’t help but feel bad for her. She was always so eager to star in his movies, as well as DJ Grooves’, and was brilliant at doing all those difficult stunt moves. He had completely forgotten that she was still just a kid. Having someone trying to kill her must have been terrifying. Was this the first time that happened to her? The Conductor couldn’t tell. 

“That crazy peck neck...” he sighed. “To be honest, I never saw him like that before.” 

And that was true. The DJ Grooves he always knew was a calm penguin wearing flashy and tasteless clothes and doing stupid dance moves that made his eyes roll if he watched long enough. The last thing he expected from his rival was to completely lose it. Screeching at the top of his lungs and spewing out harsh threats? The very nerve of him! And besides, handling knives were the Conductor’s thing, not his! That peck neck scared the poor lass real bad. 

Putting his thoughts aside, Conductor tried to say something reassuring to cheer her up. “But hey, at least ye kicked him right in the bum, right? That peck neck got what he deserved.”  
“Yeah,” Hat Kid sniffled. She looked up at him with swollen red eyes and muttered, “But if I let you win then none of that would have happened…” 

The Conductor remained silent. He really wanted to tell her that things would have been alright if she let him win this year’s bird movie award. But he thought to himself: would that change anything? He would have also gotten an extra time piece and kept it to himself so he can go back in time and make up for the loss of Award 42. Hat Kid would have found out and catch him in the basement of Dead Bird Studios. He would have done the same thing DJ Grooves did in order to keep that time piece from her: throwing knives, threatening her, attaching a bomb onto her…wanting her dead. He would have made the lass afraid of him. He would have been the bad guy in the end. 

But that didn’t happen. And right now, she was still shaken about that fight and all he had to do was to comfort her, but he didn’t know what to say. If he had won, things wouldn’t have gone differently. In fact, they would have been a lot worse. 

Hat Kid wiped her tears away. When she spoke, the shaken voice started to wither away. “You know, I’m glad you came to help me back there. I really thought that bomb was gonna kill me.”  
“What?” He quickly snapped out of his thoughts. “Oh! Of course I did lassie!” The Conductor remembered exactly what happened when he arrived at the scene. Hat Kid was in the middle of fighting DJ Grooves and he was busy panicking about finding a way to defuse the bomb on her. Thankfully, his giant pair of scissors did the trick. But at that point, the curtains suddenly fell on him and the moon penguins escorted him away. He didn’t have a chance to see how the fight ended. 

“It’s my pecking bomb and only I can use it! I dunno how Grooves found it in the first place but nobody messes with them but me!”

After ranting, he then gave another big sigh. “Besides, I couldn’t let that peck neck kill you. I gotta admit, my movies have been a huge hit, thanks to you.”

“Really?” Hat kid’s eyes lit up when she heard that. 

“Yeah! Folks have been talking about it a lot! Can you believe it? I’ve never seen a big commotion about me movies in a long time! You should definitely star in me next one!” 

“Nah, I think I had enough stardom for a while,” Hat Kid shrugged and looked at the planet from the vast window. “I still need to find the other timepieces anyway.” 

“Ay…how many do you need exactly?” 

“Um…” she thought for a moment and looked back at the huge screen next to the vault. There was the number 19 next to a picture of a time piece. “I have 19 right now so…21 more? I still got a long way to go.” 

“Well I’ll be darned, that’s quite a lot. But I’m sure ye can find them. Ye made it this far, haven’t ya?” 

“Yeah! I know I will!” When Hat Kid exclaimed that, her usual enthusiasm returned. Now that was the lass the Conductor knew. He wasn’t sure if his comfort was good enough but he was glad to see her back to her normal self. Suddenly, he noticed the time on the vault clock. It was 9:50 already? He was expected to be by the studio by 10 AM today! 

“Oh peck!” he exclaimed, “I need get going! Those pecking owls better not start off without me. They’re hopeless on their own!” 

“Aw, you’re leaving so soon?” Hat Kid asked as she tilted her head. 

“Yeah sorry to break it so quickly lass. But I really gotta go.” 

The Conductor turned to head towards the elevator and Hat Kid followed him. Before he pressed the button, he turned around to look at Hat Kid one last time, who was opening her arms as if she wanted another hug. 

“Lass, what did I just say earlier? Ye don’t have to do that.” 

But Hat Kid stood there, still opening her arms. Looks like he wasn’t leaving without another hug. With a sigh and a “fine”, the Conductor crouched down to hug her back. 

“Thanks for visiting Conductor,” she said softly as she hugged him tight. “I’m really glad you came.” 

“Heh heh, good luck out there lassie.” 

And with that, she let go of the old owl so he can leave. The Conductor stood up and chuckled. What a good lass she was. The elevator door opened and he stepped inside. Hopefully nothing bad will happen to her while he’s busy with his work.

**Author's Note:**

> Woo, that was a fun fic to write! I'm all for the Conductor being a supportive parental figure to Hat Kid. I hope I characterized him well!


End file.
